Power On with vCloud
As enterprise customers increasingly look to leverage public cloud as part of their IT strategy, compatibility, extensibility and reliability are frames of reference used to identify suitable cloud service providers. VMware makes the search easier with its vCloud Powered partner technology badge for VMware service provider partners.
As enterprise customers increasingly look to leverage public cloud as part of their IT strategy, compatibility, extensibility and reliability are frames of reference used to identify suitable cloud service providers. VMware makes the search easier with its vCloud Powered partner technology badge for VMware Service Provider partners.
The vCloud Powered partner technology badge denotes that a service provider has a validated infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) public cloud offering built on a VMware platform aligned to a specific definition. In effect, it provides a level of guarantee to the enterprise customer that its workload will utilize the same VMware architecture off-premise as it is running in its own virtualized data centers. The net result is easy provisioning of public cloud resources that are compatible with existing infrastructure, to quickly and securely extend an internal virtualized infrastructure into the public cloud.
Partners who successfully validate their vCloud service offering are eligible for promotion within VMware’s global portal, and receive a logo that can be used to support end user marketing and awareness activities.
Getting to Power
For service providers looking to benefit from the VMware brand and promote a VMware-based cloud offering to customers, step one is to join the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP). VSPP enables the success of public and hybrid cloud by providing service provider partners with an opex strategy for investing in VMware infrastructure on a monthly subscription model.
By offering VMware-based cloud services, service providers are positioned to deliver enterprise-class security and infrastructure compatibility based on the same technology as their customer’s internal IT infrastructure. VSPP is the ideal solution for companies who offer hosted services to third parties, such as IaaS providers, cloud service providers, application service providers (ASPs), Internet service providers (ISPs) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) providers.
If you’re a service provider looking for the best program to ensure your fastest path to cloud success visit our Service Provider page to learn more about VSPP.
How to Power Up
How does a service provider gain vCloud Powered status? It’s a relatively simple and painless process. Each partner must be part of VSPP with a minimum monthly commitment. Assuming they meet that level, partners can visit our vCloud Validation site to start the process.
The vCloud Powered Service Validation Tool tests the partner’s cloud service to verify it meets the following conditions:
- The cloud service must be built with and operated using VMware vSphere and VMware vCloud Director
- The vCloud User APIs must be exposed to cloud tenants
- Cloud tenants must be able to move virtual workloads packaged with the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) version 1.0
- The ability to upload OVFs built with virtual hardware version 9
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A test verifies the existence of a publicly available vCloud Director organization configured with:
- A user with credentials
- An organization virtual data center (Org VDC) with a direct connected Org VDC network bridged to the external network (no edge gateway), a private catalog to which the test user has read/write access and a Linux vApp template in the catalog configured to make a direct vApp network connection to the Org VDC network, receive inbound SSH connections and have outbound access to the Internet
More Power to You
Partners who successfully validate their cloud service will enjoy several benefits, notably their inclusion on VMware’s customer facing service provider site. Partners also will receive the vCloud Powered logo for co-branding and promotional purposes. In addition, VMware will provide a press release template for partners announcing their new vCloud Powered service and will actively promote new vCloud Powered partners via social media.
VMware heavily promotes the vCloud Service Providers portal as the de facto landing place for enterprise customers looking for VMware powered public and hybrid cloud service providers. The rich and fresh content enables customers to utilize maps, filtering and search functionality within the portal to find the vCloud Service Providers that most closely meet their needs for any given project or requirement.
vCloud Service Providers can also build and specify Test Drive functionality, which is advertised alongside their partner credentials on the portal, allowing customer the ability to perform an evaluation of the service—the perfect way to try-before-you-buy.
If you’re a service provider and you’re not a VSPP member, join now. If you’re already in the VSPP program and not vCloud Powered, you’re missing out on tremendous opportunity to grow your business. Power up today.
Best Regards,
Geoff Thompson
Director, VMware Service Provider Programs
Guest blogs such as this one are published monthly, and are part of Talkin' Cloud's annual platinum sponsorship.
